We were too old to trick or treat now. Now we were sitting bored in the basement of my house, holding a bowl full candy I had snuck from my mom's trick or treaters stash.

"We could play Mafia," Winston suggested. The rest of us moaned our disapproval.

"The Spook Alley at the school?" I said.

"Lame!"

"Well, what should we do?" I asked, sliding down the couch and onto my head. I stared at Jake, his face upside down. "You have any ideas?" I asked. Ever quiet Jake shook his head.

I could feel the blood fill my face and I kicked back on the couch and flipped right way up. I turned around to face my friends just as a fantastic idea popped into my head.

"What if we went inside the Eastman mansion?"

Jake's head snapped up. Caleb snorted. "I'd rather keep my soul, thank you very much."

Winston snapped at me to throw him a piece of candy. I tossed him a blue Jolly Rancher. "Maybe Benton's on to something," he said before eating the candy. "I mean, we're thirteen." He smacked his lips in a sticky sounding way. "What else are we going to do?"

Jake sighed.

"What do you think, man?" I asked him.

"Whatever," he said.

"Let's take a vote," I said, standing up. "All in favor of going to the mansion, say aye."

"Aye," Winston said.

Jake gave a thumbs up. We all faced Caleb. He groaned and fell back into the carpet. "I'll go." We all cheered. "If," he said suddenly, sitting up and a sly look appearing on his face. The skeleton makeup that covered his skin didn't help the look.

"And only if Winston spends the night in it."

"No way!" Winston cried. "Why should I? It was Benton's idea."

"No one has to spend the night," I said. Jake clutched his chest and fell back. "We all just go in, walk around and leave," I said.

"No," Caleb said, folding his arms. Jake pointed at Caleb. "You spend the night." Winston and I laughed. "Yeah, cowardly Caleb. You spend the night," Winston said between laughs.

"Okay, okay," Caleb said. "How about this. Benton, pull three pieces of green Laffy Taffy and one piece of banana. Put it in..." he looked around the room. He snatched the baseball cap off Jake's head. "Here and we'll all take on with our eyes closed. Whoever gets the disgusting banana, has to spend the night."

"No one has to spend the night!" I said. "Why is this even part of the deal?"

"'Cause I won't come unless it is," Caleb said.

"And if you get picked?" Winston asked.

"Then I spend the night."

"Deal," Jake said. He snatched his hat from Caleb and frisbeed it to me. I caught it and put the candy in. I held it and shook it around. "You ready for this?" I asked. Everyone nodded. I dropped the candy on the ground and sat near it. The guys scooted closer. "On three, everyone close their eyes and reach into the hat. No backsies."

"One, two, three!" We cried. I closed my eyes right and reached forward. I missed the hat the first time but felt around for it. I grabbed a taffy and tried to take it out but someone else had it too. "Hey!" It was Caleb. He finally relinquished it to me.

"Cover the candy with your hands so no one, even you, can't see it," I said. "Ready?"

Affirmative for everyone.

"Open your eyes." We looked at everyone's covered hands, sure the other had the yellow taffy. "Ready to show?" Caleb asked. We all nodded.

"Go!" he nearly screamed.

We opened our hands. Caleb screamed again when he saw he had a green taffy. "Oh, yeah!"

I looked down at mine. "No!" On my palm was the vile banana taffy, the which no one ever wanted, even when it wasn't linked to spending a night in a haunted house.

"Hah!" Winston said. He unwrapped his candy and ate it. "I hope you've enjoyed your thirteen years on this planet because you're gonna die."

***

We came up with a plan. I told my mom I was spending the night at Jake's house, where the rest of the guys would actually be sleeping. At midnight, we would ride our bikes to the end of the neighborhood, to the Eastman mansion. There, my friends would tell me goodbye. I would sleep in the house, or try to at least. At six am, Winston, Caleb and Jake would come and retrieve me. If I was alive, Winston annoyingly kept pointing out.

I had my backpack on as I peddled to the mansion. Winston had my sleeping bag, Jake had my pillow and Caleb had a collection of flashlights. The giant house loomed at us, a perfect full moon silhouetted behind it. Like out of a horror film.

I braked at the beginning of the drive. "You ready?" Jake asked.

"Oh, yeah," I said. "This won't be too bad." I was lying.

They walked me to my tomb. I cautiously knocked on the door. "What are you doing?" Winston asked.

"Making sure no one is home."

"Man, no one's lived here in fifty years!" Caleb exclaimed. "The only reason it's still here is that the person that owns it lives on the other side of the world and can't find the time to deal with it."

Jake opened the massive door. It creaked open. He began to snap his fingers to the Addams family song. "They're creepy and they're..." he stopped after catching the look on my face.

The Addams family's house was way more kept up than this one. This was had broken floorboards and spider webs everywhere. Not to mention the creepy pictures that were peeling. I swear the eyes followed you everywhere.

The door slammed shut behind me and I whirled around. Caleb waved through a grimy window and ran away cackling, Jake and Winston ahead of him. All my stuff was on the dirty floor. "Sick, I muttered. I bent down to pick it up. Wandering to the grand staircase, I swept off some dust and dropped my stuff there.

I wasn't going to sleep here until I had explored and made sure there weren't any squatters sleeping here with me. I walked through a crumbling doorway and into what must have been a sitting room. The couches were huge and fluffy but when I hit one, a plume of dust surrounded me. I coughed and waved it away.

"I see you."

I screamed and spun around to where the little girl voice had come from. There wasn't anyone around. I saw a lectern in the middle of the front room that wasn't there before. I walked cautiously to it. On it was an ancient bound book with the gold words, Eastman Family History. I opened it. The book fell open to a picture of a young girl, maybe my age or older. She was staring grimly at the camera with a white dress on.

"Ohhh, crap," I breathed as I read. Three days? That would make it... Halloween! Today! Or yesterday... kind of today!

I shook my head. I can be tough. I'll be fine. I grabbed my sleeping bag and other things and lugged them into the living room. After spending nearly a quarter of an hour beating the dust out, I declared the couch was probably safe to sleep on and made my bed. I snuggled down into the sleeping bag, clutching the stuffed kangaroo I had smuggled in it. I closed my eyes, figuring the faster I fall asleep, the sooner I can leave this place.

The grandfather clock struck 2 and I snapped awake. I hadn't heard it all night long and now it was suddenly chiming? I sat up and looked around the dark room.

There was a thud from the kitchen. I rolled off the couch and because I was entwined in my sleeping bag, fell on my shoulder. I got out and looked towards the kitchen. A flickering light was coming closer. Like a candle. I jumped into the couch and his behind the cushions. The light got brighter. My heart dropped to my toes as it entered the room.

The girl! The girl in the picture was holding the candle! Her eyes were dark and a red stain covered her chest. In her other hand, she gripped a blood tipped ornate knife. "Who killed me?" she sobbed. She looked about the room.

Hunkering down, I pressed my face into the cushions. The girl continued to cry. Then suddenly stopped. I waited for what seemed like hours before looking up. She was gone. And so was the light. With a sigh of relief, I turned around to pull up my sleeping bag. The girl was standing on it.

"Holy-" I jumped up and off the back of the couch. I ran to the front room and up the stairs. All the while the girl screaming behind me. I ran into a bedroom and slid under the bed. I watched the door.

Several moments passed and all was still quiet. But a prickling feeling started to climb up my back like spiders. I looked behind me slowly.

The girl was staring at me on her stomach. As I screamed, she did too and grabbed my foot. I tried to kick away but she held on. I army crawled from under the bed, dragging her behind me. She finally let go.

I ran back down the stairs and to the front door. It was locked. "Help!" I screamed. The floorboard creaked on the stairs and I whirled around. The girl was descending down the stairs. With a roar, I picked up the book stand and threw it at her. It caught her knee and she grabbed her injury.

"What the heck is wrong with you?" she groaned. "You can't just throw things!"

I raised an eyebrow. The girl sighed and walked down the stairs. "I hope you enjoyed your Eastman Mansion experience."

"Uh, what?"

"Duh! This is a haunted house! People pay to spend the night here and get the daylights scared out of them."

"I didn't pay," I said, confused.

"Your parents did. How do you think your friends got the idea of spending the night? Your parents told them about it. But they must have neglected to tell them about the fact it's fake. Which is good because, thinking it's real is part of the fun."

"So this is fake and my parents paid you to scare me?" I said.

"All your friends were supposed to come," a man's voice came from the dining room. He had a white mask on and took it off, revealing someone a man with a scruffy beard. "I'm guessing they dared you to spend the night here?"

"Yeah. Who are you?"

"The owner," he said. "Andrew Kress." He took off a glove and shook my hand. "This is my daughter Camille. There are other workers here too but they're stationed around the house right now."

"Now what?" I asked.

"Obvious," Camille said. "Finish the night out and impress your friends. Then dare them to spend the night here tomorrow."

I smiled. "Sounds great."

Andrew waved a finger at me. "But you can't tell anyone about this. That's what makes it fun. You can tell people that it's haunted but not that it's fake."

"Deal," I said, shaking his hand again.

24 hours later...

I waited outside in the cool night air, right under the window of the living room. The clock struck two and my friends began to scream from inside the house. Revenge is sweet.